Sony adds office wing to 1930s workshop in Culver City

Project will preserve and update historic Scenic Arts Building

Sony Pictures Entertainment ceo and chairman Tony Vinciquerra with Scenic Arts Building addition, Sony Pictures Studios, 10202 W. Washington Blvd. in Culver City (Rios, Getty)
Sony Pictures Entertainment ceo and chairman Tony Vinciquerra with Scenic Arts Building addition, Sony Pictures Studios, 10202 W. Washington Blvd. in Culver City (Rios, Getty)

Sony Pictures Studios is revamping an Art Deco building on its Culver City lot with an office and production studio expansion.

The motion picture and TV studio is constructing the four-story extension of its historic Scenic Arts Building at 10202 West Washington Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

The nearly 26,000-square-foot Scenic Arts Building was built in 1938 to display the large, hand-painted backdrops for movies. The 84-year-old building is now obsolete, but Sony wants to preserve its signature elements, from its sawtooth roofline to its large curtain window.

The studio also wants to retain its cavernous canvas painting room as a multipurpose space, while retaining its lower floors as support space.

Its new four-story wing is designed by Rios, an architectural firm based in Leimert Park.

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The Brutalistic-style addition, built of glass-fiber reinforced concrete panels, will house 33,000 square feet of offices on its upper levels, with a waiting area, gift shop and wardrobe area below. It could also host visitors for live audience productions such as the company’s “Jeopardy!” television show.

A setback above the second floor will create a landscaped terrace for office workers.

The Scenic Arts Building would be perhaps the largest addition to the Sony Pictures campus since 2016, when the studio moved its headquarters into an eight-story, 220,000-square-foot office building facing Overland Avenue, according to Urbanize.

– Dana Bartholomew

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